Thursday, May 17, 2007

An Evening Fit for a Sitcom

I have to relay the events of last night, it is just too crazy of a story not to tell.

Yesterday started and ended perfectly, it was just the middle part that got challenging. We got up, went for our walk, bummed around enjoying a morning at home without having to go to the pediatrician (Emily was doing great at her last appointment so we don't have to go back until next Tuesday, yay!) and the backyard looked so idyllic with the starflowers sprinkled everywhere (I don't care if it's a weed, they're pretty) we decided to take Emily on her first picnic. The picnic was wonderful, with the notable exception of the dogs. I suppose you can't expect dogs to be pleasant and well-behaved picnic companions, but with the eating and coughing back up of grass, the rolling in and shaking off of dirt and the crashing around they made it hilarious, if not relaxing.

We had a lovely afternoon visit from Carolyn who works with Will, and then the time came for Will to go to the gym. As is our custom, my mom and sisters came over to hang out while he was gone. We watched Will's and my wedding video and were having a grand old time when I got up and went into the kitchen. I noticed immediately that something was wrong, namely there was a half inch of warm soapy water gushing across the floor. I sprinted into the laundry room and found the washer overflowing and cascading water down onto the floor. I turned it off and yelled for help. Emily had to be unceremoniously dumped into her bassinette, and for the first time in her life she didn't cooperate and decided to start fussing. She had spent the last 3 hours being a perfect angel sleeping as she was passed around to the guests, periodically opening her eyes to charm everyone, so I can't blame her.

Krista changed her diaper while I assessed the basement, which now boasted several waterfalls. As I was moving things out of the way, I noticed I was standing barefoot in water that was coursing down over the air conditioning unit, so I beat a hasty retreat upstairs to turn off the AC before I shocked the living crap out of myself. Emily was still fussing, so I latched her on and was trying to push towels around on the floor with my feet while she nursed. All was going well until I had to burp her. I flipped her over into my favorite web-of-the-hand-holding-the-jaw burping position and started patting while I continued to sop up water. Emily was making pretty typical grunting noises, and it wasn't until Krista said "Sara, her face looks really red, I think you're choking her" that I realized her chin had slipped up and I actually just had her leaning into my hand by her neck! I sat her back up and she was 100% fine, except for her bright red face. I then started to cry of course, because my poor little baby had been grunting and trying to tell me she was choking but I hadn't paid attention and I'd been on my way to accidentally strangling her :-(

My mom and sisters assured me they had it covered and insisted that I sit down and nurse her in the living room. I sat nursing her and crying for awhile, it turned out she was in the mood for one of her 50-minute marathon feedings so it pretty effectively kept me from being able to help clean up my house. At the end of the feeding, she unleashed a mighty torrent of barf that soaked her onesie and brought up what I'm pretty sure was everything I had just spent 50 minutes getting into her! I went upstairs to change her onesie, and discovered that just to make sure she was helping as MUCH as possible, she had generated a poopy diaper as well!

By this point everything was cleaned up, and when I came downstairs with a clean and dry (if no longer entirely full) Emily, Will was home with our sushi (which was paid for by Bruce our sushi chef in honor of the new baby, how sweet!) and the evening got calm again. I fed Emily some more, then laid back on the couch with her on my chest and we both zonked out.

I am SOOOOOOOOO glad my mom and sisters were here, I have absolutely no idea what I would have done otherwise. As it is, I now have to call a washer repairman today and BEG him to come out ASAP. After all, I have a baby here and everyone knows that babies are the single most efficient laundry-generating system ever created by man. Let's hope he takes pity on me.

Looking back I can laugh, and I just got to stand over her crib and watch my incredible little baby laugh in her sleep (plus she just slept for a solid 3-hour chunk of time) so I am back to being my usual deliriously happy self now :-)